Presenters at each conference I attend share amazing resources, and each time I use Padlet Mini to curate those resources to Padlet called "EdTech Resources". This one space has tons of edtech resources to look through and try. A cool feature of Padlet is to embed it in your website. Below you can see the "EdTech Resources" Padlet I've created.

I've come to the conclusion that differentiation is the key to engaging and deep learning in every classroom at every level for every student. Differentiation is a mindset, and the mindset starts with knowing that every student can learn at deep levels. This is a mindset (a way of thinking, a philosophy) and not a quick set of strategies one can Google search. Differentiation isn't complex lesson plans or projects or list of activities students complete. It's how you approach instruction for every student.

It is a buzzword that gets slung about often. However, it's the vehicle to personalizing education for every student. What the student gets is what he/she needs. How do you know the needs of your students? You preassess, and the preassessment is given whether or not your students know about the upcoming unit. It's easy to assume they don't know anything, but in this day where so much can be learned from YouTube, websites, and social media it would be a mistake to not see what students already know. Now, you may find out every student knows almost nothing about what you are about to teach, but you don't know unless you ask.

The preassessment could be a few things but not limited to the bullets below:

I give administrators a lot of props. They deal with ton of crap thrown their way by teachers, parents, and other administrators. Mandates that come from the state have to be adhered and implemented whether they like it or not. I can't imagine the issues they have to deal with on a daily basis. Despite their desire to lead they get beat up pretty good on a daily basis and deal with the things thrown at them.

This weekend I met amazing teachers from northwest Ohio who came to learn about the class I teach called The Digital Student.

Participants learned about creating student-centered learning allowing students to have voice and choice in their learning. Perhaps there was an expectation that they would be learning all about technology since the word appears in the course title. Technology alone cannot change the classroom culture. Rather, classroom culture is dictated by how the teacher interacts and believes in his or her students.

On several occasions, participants said how their perception of teaching and learning changed, and they were going to use what they learned in the classroom on Monday.

Designing student-centered learning takes hard work and time. The time and effort pay off when participants see the relevance of their learning. They are engaged and see the relevance of their learning.

Last week I helped a teacher and her students setup Edublog. The teacher's goal was to have her students blog about the books they are reading. This is a great step to classroom blogging.Before students created their accounts, I shared why I blog. I blog to share my passion for teaching and learning, and it's this passion which drives me daily.In the moments I said my passion is teaching and learning I swelled up with pride. I am an educator, a teacher, a facilitator of growth. Could there be any greater reward? To others the answer is yes. For me, no. The reward is seeing others excel and succeed. The reward I seeing them light up with excitement. The reward is seeing work harder to achieve more. Helping teachers and students find and pursue their passions is rewarding. Some don't know what their passion is while others know it and I can help further them along their path.It's our passions that drive us to pursue lofty goals, make sacrifices to reach those goals, and grit to continue despite setbacks and failures.

Do students really learn the way we think they do? As teachers we use our own methods of learning on which we base teaching. In essence, we force students to learn a particular way because that's how we are comfortable teaching. For example, forcing students to sit and take notes controls pace, space, path, and location of learning. This is comfortable for teachers, but students dislike it.

Since Monday, July 6th, I've working alongside educators exploring how to create autonomous, driven, and digital learners. This is a 180 degree shift away from a traditional classroom. One of the things they are to do is present how to create a student-centered, autonomous classroom after being immersed in autonomous learning. Here's my take on how to create an autonomous, mastery based classroom.

Coming to school should be about learning and having fun.

Realize grades and points perpetuate school as a game, and resolve to minimize this. Instead help students where they are along a continuum of learning. An example continuum could be: novice, emerging, proficient, and mastered.

Using data from formative assessments, provide ongoing intervention and enrichment as needed. Data includes the ongoing dialogue you are having with students and the number data from formative assessments.

Design a way to deliver learning in chunks that incorporate multiple standards and learning targets.

Design experiences over weeks, not day-by-day, to build out an entire unit of learning using PBL principles. This allows you and students adequate learning time. This time is needed to iterate their learning products improving as teachers give ongoing feedback. West Virginia Department of Education currently has Teach21 Project Based Learning plans to search and use in your classroom.

Allow students to own their learning environment by giving choice. Choice can include what and how to produce their work along with choice over assessment.

Give tasks to students relieving yourself of work they can do. Make a to-do list of what has to get done day by day and then put check marks next to those tasks students can do for you.

Students should be free to move at their own pace. If learning targets are mastered then the next stage of learning should be ready for them to dive into. Another option would be to provide enrichment activities that cause them to dig deeper.

The physical space should be fluid, flexible, and easy to reorganize at a moment's notice. Students should be free to move to other spaces in classroom to work individually or in small groups.

Start small designing one autonomous learning experience using the above principles.

Learning happens over time in what is noted a school year. Within a school year, students are expected to pass all of their tests to prove they are at least standards proficient. A student leaves one grade to go to the next with the assumption that this student has mastered all prerequisite skills to successful in the next grade. Could anything be farther from the truth? There is the assumption that grades and percentages tell the whole learning tale for any student when grades and percentages don't even tell a story. So, we use tests to assign points and percentages to papers, projects, tests, and the like to measure learning when learning CANNOT be measured in such ways.

A better way is for students to compile a portfolio, yes, I said it, portfolio that shows what they can do and to what degree. The premise isn't to show off but to prove how a student's learning is growing in any subject by accumulating works at every learning stage. Yes, even when students are getting started learning something new, this should be apart of their portfolio and reflected upon in words, audio, or video so they metacognate about their learning.

This is a district initiative and not a school or classroom. Some will disagree with the prior statement but one teacher or one school cannot affect change in assessment practices in any rhizomatic, beneficial way. There's no pull, no oomph from a loner in this case. Students coming into this classroom will be have their assessment world turned upside down for 180 days and then return to the traditional system. If it's a school, they will spend a few years in learning and reflecting bliss and then return to the traditional system. It has to be an all in paradigm shift or it won't work.

Here's a plan, by no means complete, for any district to adopt portfolios.Year 1

Develop a district wide plan to begin portfolio assessment starting in kindergarten.

Determine what will be included in a portfolio.

Teachers at each grade level write the portfolio rubric.

Traditional grades and points are no longer given in favor of a "Results Only Learning Environment." The link will take you to Mark Barnes' book ROLE Reversal which is a must read to learn how to make this happen. Mark writes at his site Brilliant or Insane which is filled with ideas.

Choose a portfolio system (see below for recommendations).

Year 2

Meet with parents to provide them information about how their child will be assessed and answer questions.

Kindergarten teachers start with portfolios. I'm suggesting starting it in one year so as to build the system's efficacy. Starting this at multiple grade levels will likely cause failure creating pushback from stakeholders to go back to traditional methods.

I'm proposing nothing new, but the PARRC and AIR tests are incomplete assessment tools that give a snapshot of student learning within 180 days or so. Don't we want a better system for our students to prove how much and deep they are learning?